This invention relates generally to motor vehicle accessories and more particularly concerns a device for assisting a driver to properly position a vehicle in a garage during parking.
While proper positioning of a vehicle in a garage for parking appears at first blush to be a relatively simple maneuver, reflection will probably reveal many instances of difficulty, frustration or worse in accomplishing this task. For example, even in situations involving the rare, uncluttered garage, vehicles may at times be inadvertently permitted to travel until the front bumper makes contact with or even damages the rear wall of the garage. Conversely, in the avoidance of such an occurrence, the vehicle may be stopped while the rear bumper is positioned rearwardly of the plane of the entry door. This in turn prevents closing of the garage door completely. In the case of an automatic garage door, this may cause continued operation of the opener until the problem is recognized. In most garages, goods or equipment stored along the rear wall of the garage tend to complicate the positioning of the vehicle because of reduced parking area, obstructed vision and variations of depth perception. These difficulties take on special significance to elderly drivers who may have difficulty in judging distances under the best of circumstances.
Various mechanical devices, generally operated on a lever principle in which the forward structure of the vehicle flips a control mechanism when the vehicle has advanced to a preselected forward position, have been proposed to solve these problems. In addition, a variety of electrical devices, typically employing a photo cell circuit controller for sensing the forward position of the vehicle, have also been proposed.
The general failing of these mechanical and electrical devices is that, while they can determine the location of the leading edge of the vehicle in the garage, they provide no positional data relative to the location of the rear of the vehicle. As a result, if a driver using a particular garage parking space does not always use a car of the same length, the known devices provide no guarantee whatsoever that the rear edge of the vehicle will be clear of the garage door.
Furthermore, the mechanical devices are caused to operate by the physical force or impact of the vehicle against a control mechanism, and therefore the devices themselves are susceptible to wear and damage. And while the known electrical systems, when properly functioning, generally indicate the stop location for the forward edge of the vehicle, these systems provide no assurance to the driver that the system is actually functioning properly during entry of the vehicle into the garage. Such a system, if it malfunctions, may do more harm than good.
It is, therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide a garage parking position indicator that will indicate the desired positioning of both the forward and rear edges of the vehicle between the rear wall of the garage and the garage door. A further object of this invention is to provide a garage parking position indicator that has a minimal number of moving parts. And it is an object of this invention to provide a garage parking position indicator that confirms to the driver that the system is in proper operation upon entry of the vehicle into the garage.